Sauteed Shredded Brussels Sprouts...

Back in the kitchen for another New Thing this week.    

Ever since Christmas day when I enjoyed a restaurant meal of sautéed shredded Brussels sprouts alongside broiled salmon, I knew I wanted to make this side dish at home.  I also decided I was going to (try to) learn to cook a salmon filet to perfection - but that's for another day.

On the lookout for fresh Brussels sprouts I've been surprised and dismayed at how expensive they are (or have become maybe?).   But I kept an eye out, and finally, on my last shopping trip, I found some fresh Brussels sprouts that were in the range of affordable (1.99/lb, I think), so I brought home two mesh bags of them.   Two bags was probably one too many, but, well...  live and learn.

This post is going to now turn into a recipe of sorts, for future reference if I ever forget how to make sautéed Brussels sprouts - which seems ridiculous because of how easy these are to prepare this way,  but you never know...  This dish does not need a recipe, and that's why you'll not find measurements here, but if you're comfortable in the kitchen you'll totally get that this isn't an exact science, but rather you prepare this dish by sight, feel and taste.  If you've tired of roasted Brussels sprouts, or just downright hate them (for whatever reason), you might want to consider this way of cooking them before completely giving up on them. They are very healthy, I understand.

So anyway... once home, seeing that the outer layers of most of the sprouts were scarred and a tad discolored in places, I got out my paring knife and peeled off the first layer or two.   And cut off the bottom most part of the base.  I didn't clean them otherwise.

Then with a larger slicing knife I sliced them into pretty shreds.  Pretty simple, too.  Some people use a mandoline slicer, I understand.  Or maybe a box shredder.  But slicing them with a sharp knife worked fine for me.

When shredding Brussels sprouts, a little goes a long way I found out.  For two of us, I probably sliced up 6 to 8 sprouts.

Then I heated up some olive oil in a frying pan.  Added some butter, then tossed in the shredded Brussels sprouts and stirred and heated until they started to wilt a bit.

Now's about when I added some sea salt and some freshly ground pepper.  And continued sautéing them, continuing to toss and turn the shredded sprouts over and over in the pan until they started to caramelize.  Tongs are perfect for this.  At some point in the cooking (I'm thinking at the beginning of things starting to brown,) if you have any cooked bacon hanging around, you can add it to the pan if that sounds good to you. 

But bacon isn't necessary.  And I didn't have any cooked up, so I just kept going, adding a bit more butter as it seemed a good idea to do so - my goal was to have something of a buttery sauce as I completed cooking this dish.  

Keep stirring and sautéing, 'till it all looks done!  Like this:

The texture is softened, but with some crispiness left to it.  Really, I think you can just cook this as long as you want, but this took me mere minutes.  Less than 10, I'm pretty sure.

Many recipes will have you add balsamic vinegar, so I did (right after I snapped the above picture), and as soon as I tasted them, I instantly regretted it.  Maybe I was using a cheap, bad-tasting balsamic (very possibly), or maybe I used too much (though I don't think so), but I will forego it in the future.  These went from tasting fresh and having their flavor heightened by caramelization, to turning overall brownish and having their fresh taste overcome by the vinegar.  We ate them, and I finished them off, but I'm of the opinion that balsamic vinegar (aside from being an acquired taste), really didn't improve the dish.  If you like balsamic, though, knock yourself out.  Edited to add:  I've made this dish several times again since posting this, leaving out the balsamic vinegar and I, personally, think they taste much better without it.

And that's really it!   If you make this dish and add any kind of acid besides balsamic vinegar, I'd be happy to know it.   I may play with some other things like lemon juice, or a white wine vinegar, but otherwise, some butter, salt and pepper makes these sautéed sprouts very good.

I'm planning on thawing out some salmon I've got in the big freezer, and fixing some more of these shredded sprouts later in the week.  :)  We'll see if I can get the salmon-cooking-thing down now.

That's nine new things in 2022!

After being annoyed at the blogger editor telling me I was misspelling Brussels sprouts (which I was spelling brussel sprouts), I finally looked it up.  I didn't realize that there was an s on the end of brussel.  Did you?  Makes sense, even if it's awkward to pronounce - for someone who never realized there was an s at the end.